Keleigh and Miles Teller Dance Through Hold Music Hell in Bud Light’s Super Bowl Ad

It is a new era of Bud Light.

And nowhere is that more evident than on advertising’s biggest stage—the Super Bowl. Bud Light is shifting away from the absurdist humor of past years toward the fun in everyday life. The change comes with new a tagline: “Easy to Drink. Easy to Enjoy.”

The brand’s Super Bowl spot, which is just the second piece of work from new agency of record Anomaly, features actor Miles Teller, his wife, Keleigh, and their French bulldog Bugsy. Instead of using the 60-second spot to crack an endless line of jokes, Bud Light uses relatability to connect with consumers.

“We’re going toward real people and real places,” Alissa Heinerscheid, vp of marketing for Bud Light, told Adweek. “We needed to reestablish what this brand is about.”

The new tagline is a result of going back to the brand’s roots, as Heinerscheid zeroed in on something August Busch III told a brewmaster 41 years ago: “Brew me an easy-to-drink beer.” That insight is now the DNA of the brand.

The new spots released so far from Anomaly follow the same framework, according to Heinerscheid.

“You start with something a little bit hard, frustrating, annoying, something that you could let ruin your mood and your day. But then you choose Bud Light, everything shifts, and you start to truly enjoy yourself,” she said.

The Super Bowl ad opens with Keleigh waiting on hold for an agonizingly long period of time. Enter Miles, who breaks up the doldrums of hold hell with two Bud Lights and some evocative dancing, which Keleigh and Bugzy eventually joining in.

“We have something special in that the Super Bowl can be all about going the biggest, shouting the loudest and the flashiest,” Heinerscheid said, adding the brand will instead approach it with a refreshed confidence knowing it strives to tell a compelling, magnetic story to break through the noise.

She’s hoping consumers appreciate the unexpectedness of the spot’s tone, and they’ll agree that it still feels right for the brand.

Heinerscheid said she has a clear directive: Keep Bud Light drinkers choosing Bud Light and attract new consumers to the brand, which has seen declining volumes of beer shipped for more than a decade. Last year, Bud Light shipped 25.7 million barrels of the beer, down from 27.2 million shipped in 2019, according to data from Beer Marketers Insights.

“The Super Bowl is just such an incredible opportunity to signal that new era to young new drinkers and to our loyal fan base,” she said.

The winning team’s city will also find it easy to celebrate as Bud Light will deliver a truckload of beer. Heinerscheid couldn’t say whether an Eagles win means Miles Teller will be involved with the brand’s celebrations in Philadelphia, as Teller is a well-known Eagles fan. The brand will also give away $10,000 every time a team scores during the Super Bowl. It’s not clear yet whether the number Keleigh is on hold with (1-833-461-3500) will lead fans to unlock more content.

Partnering with Anomaly

Bud Light began working with Anomaly over the summer. The first work debuting in January with the spot “Carry.”

It features a woman deftly carrying a round of Bud Lights through a crowded bar. Heinerscheid pointed out that it’s no accident both spots feature a woman as the protagonist. “Female representation is something I’m super passionate about. And you’ll see there’s a through line in front of the camera,” she said.

While only a half year into the partnership, Heinerscheid feels strongly that Anomaly is creating the right strategy for the brand, something she hasn’t always experienced in her career.

“We do fundamentally believe we’ve got the right ‘who we are and what we stand for.’ And the work truly does deliver on that message of easy enjoyment,” she said, adding the ability to connect the two is Anomaly’s secret sauce that has made the partnership strong in its initial stages.

As Anomaly solidifies the strategy with the first work, the brand is moving away from “Real Men of Genius” and medieval “Dilly Dilly” rallying cries and into a space more consumers will connect with.

“We’re really evolving how Bud Light has showed up, from this laugh-out-loud jokester brand to this clever, confident magnetic brand. And that’s what we want people to truly take away,” Heinerscheid said.